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German IT Outfit Bans Whining
theodp writes "German IT outfit Nutzwerk Ltd has come up with the perfect solution to whining in the workplace - it's made cheerfulness a contractual obligation, advising those who don't measure up to the prescribed level of jollity in the morning to stay at home until they cheer up. The plan was prompted by a female employee whose constant complaining prompted the other staff to complain about her complaining."
is over the top, but there are few things more irratating & detremental to productivity than an angry/whiny co-worker.
I was allowed to stay at home as long as it takes to become happy before going to work ;)
A rule-of-thumb in software development: If a place has too many Dilbert cartoons on cubicle sides, have an exit strategy. If it has none, RUN!!!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
...but I am under contractual obligation to not whine.
I can imagine that being under contract to not whine will mean that people will come up with creative ways to whine without really whining. Reminds me of a conversation I had last night. I am recent transplant to The South and was told that there were phrases in use here that didn't mean what they really mean. For example, if you tell someone something like "I just inherited a million dollars" they will reply be saying "That's nice." ...which really means F*ck you.
So, image code words and phrases will be created to allow whining without breaching the contract.
Because overly cheery co-workes are almost as irritating.
I mean, telling people not to whine to the point of being unberable is one thing. Telling them to pretend to be cheery all the time is another.
but there are few things more irratating & detremental to productivity than an angry/whiny co-worker.
One thing more detrimental is an angry/whiny co-worker (or employee) who is pretending to be cheerful.
This really just sounds like management doesn't have the skill or the emotional maturity to actually deal with the problem, so instead, they sweep it under the rug.
If an employee is angry/whiny, there is a reason. Maybe that reason is internal to the employee. Maybe that reason is the result of something in the work environment. Force the employee to pretend to be happy, and the employee will probably more unhappy. Then you have an employee not working to the best of their ability, who may even be acting out passive aggressively. That attitude can spread just as quickly as overt angry/whiny behavior, and can be even worse to tolerate because it is harder to pin down.
Because emotions aren't something that one can always control with impunity? Besides, no whinging means you can't complain about the PHB or you cow-orker while on the job - you end up being a good little robot. IME emotions - both good and bad - spark thought, and thought leads to greater productivity. I can see a policy of dealing directly with someone who does _nothing_ but complain and then offers no creative solutions, but trying to program happiness? No thanks.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
The plan was prompted by a female employee whose constant complaining prompted the other staff to complain about her complaining.
Wonder why they felt it relevant to point out it was a woman?
there are few things more irratating & detremental to productivity than an angry/whiny co-worker
Actually, the person most irritating and detrimental to productivity is the cheerful, optimistic sysadmin who continues to do upgrades and apply patches while saying, "It won't affect anything," no matter how many times he has broken everything. I can ignore the angry/whiny people that aren't breaking stuff (well, except when it's my boss :).
Beatings... heh... ;)
If the headline were rephrased it would not be that unusual a situation. In the professional working world people need to and want to behave "professionally" toward coworkers and associates. A business can be made or broken over lack of diplomacy among its staff and towards its customers.
In the corporate world, anyone can be promoted over you. The annoying person in the next cubicle who drives you crazy with his nail biting and overly loud headphones might be your manager next year so you restrain your natural desires to complain to him or about him. If he's not a TOTAL moron, he'll try to restrain his mouth around you, as well. And you both are painstakingly courteous and helpful on the phone to customers and associates from different departments; the last thing you want is someone complaining that you were rude or difficult to deal with, either inside or outside the firm.
I have heard for years about how the vicious behavior of people in TV stations and the broadcasting industry in general. Not having worked in that field, I can't say for sure, but I know people who have been to a local TV station for some one-off show and heard one anchor say to another, "You f*cking b*tch! Don't you ever cut me off like that again!" and that sort of thing. It's hard to believe that people would put up with each other talking that way but they apparently do.
The last thing I want to hear when I go to work is someone complaining. Life is not fair. Suck it up. If something's broken, fix it, don't just whine about it. Complaining is a way of broadcasting how powerless one is, as well as an indication of one's lack of initiative and creativity. Let such people go work elsewhere.
Not sure I agree with "official policy" on whining but the reality is that people self-select away from whining so it's probably unnecessary (and will only damage a company's morale in the long run).
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
Obviously, if everyone has be cheerful, they will also have to look cheerful and demonstrate that they have plenty of personality by wearing badges and colourful clothing, which will undoubtably lead to this conversation:
Joanna: You know what, Stan, if you want me to wear 37 pieces of flair, like your pretty boy over there Bryan, why don't you make the minimum 37 pieces of flair?
Stan, Chotchkie's Manager: Well, I thought I remembered you saying that you wanted to express yourself.
Joanna: You know what, I do want to express myself, okay. And I don't need 37 pieces of flair to do it.
[flips off Stan]
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Urination is a God-given right. Our ancestors did it all the time, all over the place, until some religiously motivated tight-assed sourpusses decided it would damage fragile minds to accidentally see a tip of flesh. This kind of irrational repression is what we like to ridicule the Muslims for.
When a German's gotta go, he gotsta go. There is a reasonable modesty mechanism in place, i.e. I will feel uncomfortable about it and seek out a dark corner, the back of a preferrably windowless, non-residential building, behind a tree or wherever. And I'll be more likely to do this at night than in broad daylight. If I'm out walking in a "public" forest where I'm likely to be seen by joggers, cyclists or families taking a walk, I'll walk 20 - 50 feet off the path and into the woods so no one will see me in profile unless they follow me in. On two or three occasions, I've been in the woods with a girlfriend when she had to go, and she asked me to look out for passersby and shield her from view if necessary while she pulled down her pants and squatted to do her thing.
As a net result, you'll sometimes see the back of a man standing by the side of the road or up against a tree, with his legs spread and pelvis pushed forward. If you look closely, you may even see a yellow stream. But why would you want to look closely? You accept that the guy apparently had a hard time holding it before finding a proper convenience, turn away and ignore him.
I rarely heed Nature's call in the open, maybe once or twice a year; but when I do, I don't worry my head about it. By contrast, I understand that doing this in the US may get me arrested on charges of sexual misconduct and branded for life as a sex offender, with incriminating bulletins sent to prospective neighbors and employers. I find public urination as distasteful as the next guy, but... sanity check, anyone?
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Rel
I find your statement hard to reconcile with the fact that public urination, in the US, is met with punishment for a sexual offense. From earlier digging, I remember that in Utah, public urination is a "Class C Sexual misdemeanor".
Understood and agreed. But when I think of "public urination," I tend to think of "outside." When I think of "outside" I think of "rain." Guess what? All the constituents of urine are water soluble! Still, it would take a pretty bad urge before I would let go in a residential area.
Do you live in the Washington, DC area? Do you know how much arsenic is in your tap water?
Yes, the salt and urea concentration can make grass turn yellow. And in really massive concentrations (like if you directly pipe a public outhouse into a river), the phosphate can cause algal bloom - just like most fertilizers. Incidentally, I live not far from some small farms. Once in a while, the farmer sprays the strawberry plants with -would you believe?- cow piss.
Having taken the trouble to research, at least on the 'Net, I take offense at your snotty put-down about Slashdot that's aimed directly at me. Pray tell, which friend told you that urine is an environmental hazard?
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Rel
When was it that a legitimate complaint became whining? Those that keep their mouths shut get run over, used and abused.
Karma: a simple way of silencing those with unpopular views regardless how correct or just that view might be.
I don't see why they couldn't just fire the whiner. Ability to get along with your co-workers is a perfectly valid criterion of job performance.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
No one should need to leave, and supressing ppls freedom of speech
in the workplace is just the beginning .
Soon it will be politically correct to suppress it elsewhere .
If the person does not do their job that is one thing, but
for them to be silenced for expressing discontent over maltreatment
or inequality is a bad idea in my humble opinion .
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
you are unbelievably ignorant in so many ways but I'll point out one of them.. the attack wasn't on new york, it was on america the reason they attacked the twin towers was because they were a symbol in our country and taking them down was supposed to make us feel vulnerable. Whoever moded this insightful is equally as ignorant
That's rarely a solution either, but places do that all the time already - despite not spelling out a "mandatory happiness" type of rule. The question you have to ask yourself is, why was this "whiner" hired in the first place, if he or she really exhibits such a constantly negative attitude? Most likely, he/she WASN'T initially that bad! Sometimes, all the complaining is an expression of "the squeaky wheel gets the oil" attitude. Something is wrong and needs fixing, and this is an employee who actually cares enough to keep griping - instead of sitting down, shutting iup, and letting the inefficiency, mis-management, or other issue continue.
To an extent, I think it depends on the type of job one holds, too. If you work in a customer service capacity, you obviously are expected to get along with and listen patiently to your customers. Not being able to do so means you're not performing your job properly. But in a number of office jobs, being a "team player" is highly overrated. People concentrating on getting their work done instead of chatting it up with all their cubicle-mates are more efficient.
Germany has customer service that you can't get and the US has customer service that you don't want.
Other than sexism, was there a reason to point out that the individual is female?
I feel sorry for the woman. She shouldn't be discriminated against, she should be able to get any job she is capable of doing.
But she isn't capable of doing this one.
Equal opportunity means that. It doesn't mean a free pass for something you can't do.
I hope they offered her other positions at the company.
I have to say having RTFA now, it seems like they'll have a tougher time of it than my explanation makes it out. If she couldn't smile, why did they keep her on for a couple years, then fire her? But I stand by my statement that just you don't deserve compensation for being fired for not doing a job that has requirements you cannot satisfy. I mean, it is well known that people with disabilities cannot do every job able-bodied people can. If this weren't the case, there'd be no Social Security money paid to disabled people.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
I'm a designer. It's my job to design. To design you must be able to feel what the client wants from talking to them. The client doesn't always know what they want. When they do it's often a big bonus and help. To feel you must have emotions. To stifle emotions would be to stifle the design. If the design was stifled then every site would look the same. Anyways even out of a designing environment, emotions are the result of a cause. Sadness happens because something sad happened like a death in the family, Anger happens because someone did something rude like nearly t-bone you on a roundabout. To effectively deal with emotions you must deal with the root cause. This is where medicine is going wrong. If you're not sleeping right it's usually because something is praying on your mind. Instead of the doctor finding out what is bugging you they shove pills down your throat. Trust me they do this. It's happened to me and the side effects stank worse then a US state full to bursting point with fresh manure. Please excuse the length of this post but that is why emotions are so important.
There have been many times when dealing with people that I wished I could kiss my own butt goodbye